He Da Vinci painter. The sculptor The engineer. The Tuscan wise man who devised flying machines at the end of the 15th century. The one with mirror writing and the muse with a disturbing smile. That of the enigma that does not go away five centuries after his death. With a long beard, sober look and clear forehead, Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci is by far one of the most magnetic characters in history.
Hundreds of myths and theories have been founded on his genius, rivers of ink have flowed and bestsellers have even been written and movies made in the most genuine Hollywood style. The last helping of conspiracies was served a few years ago, when the Salvator Mundi canvas was sold. for the astronomical amount of 450 million dollars News followed that again questioned the authorship of the painting.
However, before being a consummate artist, a curious man with a voracious appetite and even a modern scientist (some maintain that he was the first, anticipating Galileo), Da Vinci was simply a Sir from Tuscany. With his quirks and flaws, overshadowed by the fascination that the character arouses. A muscular, flirtatious Vinciano with a peculiar sense of humor, who hated meat and who liked to be a fan of things.
This is the least known Da Vinci.
Da Vinci, Renaissance gymbro
The author of The Mona Lisa He was a good-looking guy, with a handsome face and athletic body. And to prevent the passage of centuries from erasing that image, there is plenty of evidence that reminds us that the Tuscan was a true beauty. “He was by nature courteous, cultivated and generous, and his face was extraordinarily beautiful,” wrote the humanist Paolo Giovio.
Perhaps to curl the curl and elevate him almost to the category of Adonis, his biographer Vasari (who never met the Tuscan) describes him as a “tall, extraordinary beauty and infinite grace” gallant.
There is no doubt that he liked to dress well and take care of his appearance. He used to dress up in pink tunics that reached his knees, fur cloaks and rings. Also carefully comb your hair, curly and long. In one of his notebooks he wrote advice on how to become a real dandy. Do you want them to turn around? square at your pace? Well (recommends the Tuscan) “drink fresh rose water and moisten your hands with them.”
Da Vinci, liking himself, around 1478.
In any case, it was best not to criticize his appearance. Although there are many testimonies of his pacifist spirit, the chronicles tell us of a Da Vinci endowed with a force exceptional. “With his right hand he could twist a horseshoe or the iron ring of a knocker as if they were made of lead,” explained Vasari, who once again seems inclined to exaggerate a bit of Leonardo’s qualities.
The Tuscan’s fixation on elegance went far beyond his appearance. Da Vinci was a clean and conscientious man who liked to surround himself with rigorous order. “If you want to know how a person’s spirit inhabits his body,” reads one of his notebooks, “look at how he treats his dwelling; if it is disordered, in the same way the spirit will maintain the body in a confusing way.”
The Full Pantomime of its time
Leonardo is remembered as a thoughtful, severe, taciturn and reserved man. Although those were undoubtedly fundamental aspects of his character (this is how he showed himself in his very famous self-portrait from Turinin which she presents herself with a melancholic expression), was far from the only one. Throughout his life he dedicated great efforts to making people laugh.
in the book Leonardo, the flight of the mindCharles Nicholl points out the irony that his most famous painting is The Mona Lisa (the jubilant one, in Spanish). There is no doubt that the Tuscan liked jokes.
The satirical and sophisticated word games, but also the crudest ones. In his notebooks we find funny notes written down relatively frequently. One of them (which invites us to think of a Leonardo holding his stomach with great laughter and tears in his eyes) says: “They asked a painter why he painted such beautiful images, even though they were of dead things, while his children were so ugly. To which he replied that he made his paintings during the day and his children at night.”
“Paparl, paparl, take me to the circus.” (Self-portrait of Da Vinci himself in his younger years)
His sense of humor also appeared in his artistic work. Their cartoons They are very well known. Also the decorations and gadgets that he designed for the celebrations of the Sforza family or at the court of France, which in a way made him “the king of the party.” Vasari once again collects another anecdote that, this time, gives us a glimpse of Da Vinci’s humor.
On one occasion a gardener gave him a large lizard that he had hunted. Leonardo decided to stick some wings he made with scales on its back. Every time the suffering reptile walked, those membranes trembled to the terror of the public. “He made it eyes, horns and a beard and then domesticated it,” says Vasari, “he used to keep it in a box and whenever he took it out for his friends to see, they ran away scared.”
Da Vinci, pop star and veggie
Yes, musician. Engineer, painter, anatomist, sculptor, architect… And musician! The Tuscan’s fingers not only showed his virtuosity with the brush. There are multiple references that there was nothing wrong with the lyre of braccioan instrument with which he liked to let inspiration take him from time to time. And just like Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) has its iconic two-neck GibsonLeonardo also showed off his peculiar instrument when he performed: an elegant silver lyre in the shape of a horse’s head, built by himself.
Although Leonardo’s musical side is often overlooked, there are clues that indicate he played an important role. For example, it was as an interpreter that he arrived at the court of Milan. Leonardo’s sensitivity also made him interested in literature. Towards the end of the 1480s he began to create a small library with volumes of poetry and prose and there is evidence that he was a friend of literati such as Antonio Cammelli either Bernardo Bellincioni. Armed with his lyre, he used to improvise poetry and was very fond of word games and riddles.
“Portrait of a musician”, by Leonardo Da Vinci. In his time, Da Vinci was a Jared Leto, part-time rock star.
At the table, Leonardo had his customs. It is known that at least towards the end of his life he was a vegetarian convinced, something not surprising considering the enormous respect he had for animals. I used to buy caged birds just to release them. Despite this philosophy, it seems that Da Vinci was tolerant of the diners who sat at his table, to whom he did not hesitate to serve tasty stews of partridges and other meats.
Much has been written about his love of cooking. In the prologue of Cooking Notes by Leonardo Da Vincithe renowned gastronomic critic José Carlos Capel pointed out in 1999 how the artist was also “an unrepentant gourmet.” Capel explains that, in his youth, Da Vinci served without much success as head chef at the Three Caracoles tavern in Florence, and that years later he would run another one. osteria in the same city hand in hand with Sandro Boticelli.
In Cooking Notesits authors, Shelagh and Jonathan Routh, tell how Da Vinci and Boticelli decided to open the business in 1478, after a fire burned down the tavern. Using old canvases taken from Andrea del Verrochio’s workshop, the future authors of The Mona Lisa and The Birth of Venus They would have built and decorated The Ensign of the Three Frogs by Sandro and Leonardo. His new cousinewith minimalist dishes, however, condemned it to failure. In Routh’s book it is noted that Da Vinci also devised primitive household appliances, such as an automatic rotisserie, a bread slicer or a huge meat grinder.
Leonardo getting you 150 euros for his signature cuisine. (Self-portrait)
What is the problem of Cooking Notes? In its prologue it is already stated that “the book is a game of speculation and an exercise in historical presumption.” More than a decade after its publication in Spain, after 75,000 copies were sold and it inspired a good number of articles, Capel acknowledged in 2011 that the content of the book is “purely a joke” and that he supposed manuscript on which it is based, the Codex Romanoffdoes not exist. In short: a fiction written by Shelagh and Jonathan Routh to entertain readers.
The famous gastronomic critic points out in any case that it’s true that Leonardo and Boticelli had a half-baked tavern in Florence. Recognized biographers of the Tuscan genius, such as Nicholl or Fritjof Capra, do not mention anything on the subject. Of course, the latter recognizes that little is known about what Leonardo did between 1477 and 1478 in Florence, after abandoning Verrochio’s studio to establish himself on his own.
The solved mystery of his sexuality
Most experts on Da Vinci’s life and work agree that he was homosexual. The Tuscan was little given to writing down details of his personal life and he was equally discreet about what he did in the bedroom. Experts who support that theory often point to his work. Perhaps the most revealing of his paintings is Saint John the Baptistdated between 1508 and 1513, when Leonardo was already around 60 years old. On the canvas there is no hint of the asceticism that the prophet is supposed to have. On the contrary, in him we see a young man with long, curly curls, a seductive expression and a bare chest.
Da Vinci, already in the final stretch of his life.
Leonardo’s homosexuality does not require entering those depths. There is more palpable evidence. For example, among the first to maintain that he felt attracted to men is the painter Giovanni Paolo Lamazzo, in the 16th century, one of Da Vinci’s biographers closest to the period in which the Tuscan lived. Some are also quite revealing. drawings from Da Vinci’s notebooks, like the sketch of an angel with a pronounced erection.
The most suggestive data, however, is found in a scandal in which Da Vinci was involved during his time in Florence. At the beginning of April 1476 the authorities had distributed the buchi della verità (mouths of truth), mailboxes in which anyone could send anonymous complaints. One of them pointed to Leonardo (along with three other names) as the author of “sodomy.” The letter gave rise to an investigation that was settled months later.
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